title: Mothers' attitude toward digit sucking habits in children of United Arab Emirates.
abstract: The purposes of this study were to evaluate maternal attitudes and knowledge towards digit sucking habits and to investigate the association between various factors and the presence of these habits. A cross-sectional sample of 150 mothers of children currently engaged in digit sucking habits were interviewed. The information collected was from a questionnaire completed by the mothers. The analyzed data regarding the mothers revealed that younger mothers represented 54% of the sample, 47.3% were well-educated and 70.0% were unemployed. Regarding the children, female children (65.3%) practiced digit habits more than males, and 45.3% of the children were younger than 3 years of age. Significant factors associated with maternal attitudes towards digit sucking habit included: 88.6% of mothers never tolerated this habit, 75.0% of the mothers were unemployed and provided instruction to cease the habit, and 89.9% of the mothers never sought advice from a dentist. Overall, mothers did not view digit sucking habits to be an acceptable behavior regardless of their nationality. Mothers indicated that they tried to stop the habit with a variety of techniques but without any professional advice. The study concludes that mothers would benefit from receiving information about a motivational program, professional advice, and suggestions to discourage this habit.
authors.affiliation: College of Dentistry Ajman University, UAE. afraasalah@hotmail.com
authors.forename: Afraa
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Salah
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D001294:Attitude to Health; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004522:Educational Status; D005260:Female; D005386:Fingersucking / Q000523:psychology* / Q000628:therapy; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009034:Mother-Child Relations; D009035:Mothers / Q000523:psychology*; D009042:Motivation; D012737:Sex Factors; D014478:Unemployment; D014479:United Arab Emirates; D055815:Young Adult